Holding salary

The salary is paid to employee for work done by employee.

The service conditions are regulated by appointment letter, standing orders of the company.

The employees in sales are given the task of going to clients in market to book orders.

The bill is raised by company and before raising the bill and supplying the stocks it is duty of the company to verify the orders, check credit limit if any and which is to be fixed by the company, receipt of past payments, receipt of instrument of payment e.g. cheque/DD along with order. If the company is satisfied the company may dispatch the stocks as per the terms and conditions fixed by company which may be mentioned in letter of appointment of stockiest/on order form and on bill. At times company prepares LR in its name.

Company has the option of calling back the stocks.

The bill is raised in the name of client and not the employee.

The so called clients are clients of the company and not of the employee.

It is felt that salary of employee can not be with held.

During the notice period company may ask the employee to facilitate the collection of payments.

Valuable advice of learned experts/members is sought.

at the time of apoointment letter itself u should clearly mentioned such terms to bring the sales and also payments should be your sole respnosibility or you would be liable to pay the outstanding amount from clients 

it is your duty to draft the purchase order terms before intializing the order.  

and witholding of salary for the clients not paying is against the law 

in recent times most companies are duping the public and closing the shutters and the sales person who bring the deposits from the clients in such a situation thus the sales person i liable to pay the amount to the clients who deposited for the fault of employer 

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your reply, here the product is not any physical item but our freight forwarding & custom clearance services. Which once rendered cannot be taken back. This services are sold to exporter or importer. We have credit policy which many times is not followed by the sales person and till time we take action it is too late. In many cases sales person do not communicate any deduction in the bill and it is only highlighted while leaving the services. If the sales person leaves many times the customer also migrate with him to the new company. Many Client has two o more freight forwarders to serve or they go to new forwarder.

In such case what do we do, we have no option but to hold sales person responsible for the same. We do not have any conditions/ responsibility mentioned only position of appointment is mentioned and general terms & condistion of the employement.

Please help what do we do????

Waiting for your expert advice

You have posted that:

--“Which once rendered cannot be taken back. This services are sold to exporter or importer.”

It is surprising why can’t you proceed to recover freight forwarding & custom clearance services rendered by you? If you are a registered company for this service and you have raised the bill of service as per contract of service, the client is to make the payment to you.

--“We have credit policy which many times is not followed by the sales person and till time we take action it is too late.”

If the policy is not adhered to what for you have a policy and Branch Managers and other Managers. Before you start the service the due diligence is your duty as well.

In many of the sectors RTS {Return to Sales} is the policy. Till the time there is total compliance to the steps mentioned in the process and policy no action is taken to complete the sale is taken by the company. Companies follow TAT system to ensure that everyone completes the task in scheduled time. If there is violation of any step the order/sale sourced by sales staff does not get materialized and companies prefer to lose the order than to loose the revenue.

“In many cases sales person do not communicate any deduction in the bill and it is only highlighted while leaving the services.”

The deduction or discount or credit note if any has to intimated in writing, in the order and bill and due diligence is the duty of the Branch Managers or the personnel who authorize to render the service finally and MD of the company who is allowing such a lack luster approach.

You are at fault too. You need to put an airtight system in place or you shall continue to suffer.

Try and collect the payments of the amount arrived at after deductions. You shall recover something.

As the customers are loyal to sales staff than your company and its seniors, if you charge sales staff you may get nothing.

If you issue legal notices to customers you shall loose them.

These customers may not agree to be your witness against sales staff. They may never come back to you. After all they are the ones who have to state under oath that some deductions were committed to them.

The sales staff may claim that confessions were extracted out of them within premises of the company by force.

--“If the sales person leaves many times the customer also migrate with him to the new company. Many Client has two o more freight forwarders to serve or they go to new forwarder.”

You can not charge a sales person or employee if the customer does not remain attached with your company.

Customer is not bound to any company. Customers keep multiple choice and they can.

Apparently the promoters and Managers/Directors of your company are mere arm chair managers and have not been able to create any brand/company image and exercise any control.

If you wish to check such as pilferage you need to ensure that seniors move inmarket.

--“In such case what do we do, we have no option but to hold sales person responsible for the same. We do not have any conditions/ responsibility mentioned only position of appointment is mentioned and general terms & condistion of the employement.”

We are afraid that you may not succeed. You can hold them responsible without any justifiable reasons.

HR should always take balance decisions and protect the company from litigation and consequences of litigation.

However if you are under pressure to initiate legal action or if you are inclined to initiate  litigation you may show all record and docs to a lawyer at your location and proceed as per advice of your lawyer. Your lawyer may find some merits in the docs and may suggest litigating.

Valuable advice of learned experts/members is sought.